Welcome to National Poetry Month and Happy Thursday to you all!
This month, I will be joining Kym, Bonny, and Sarah as we share a poem with you each Thursday.
This week our focus is on poems about peace/humanity… and there was just such an abundance of choices, I struggled a bit with this one. So I kept reading and reading… but one poem kept circling around my thoughts and I knew that it was the poem I wanted to share.
The poet is Laura Grace Weldon and she is a “new to me” poet. I have not read any of her books but I did have fun meandering about her website! The poem I selected for this week is Anything, Everything.
Anything, Everything
by Laura Grace Weldon
“Find everything you’re looking for?” a clerk asks
and I say, “I’m still looking for world peace.”
“Can I get you anything else?” a nurse asks
and I say, “Yes, a safe haven for refugees.”
For a millisecond, their faces soften
as they take a deep breath of imagining
then laugh or shake their heads
or commiserate. For a few minutes
we might even discuss
our planet’s highest possibilities.
Maybe that deep breath,
that imaging,
is a starting place.
Anything, Everything © 2018 by Laura Grace Weldon. First published in Blackbird, Grayson Books, 2019.
Make sure you see what Kym, Bonny, and Sarah have to share today!
See you back here on Monday!
A good one Kat! This one rings a bell with me, but I’m not sure where I read it or saw it. We definitely need a starting place….
I love this, Kat! I only know a few cashiers that I could try this on but I would be interested in their response. Someday I may find the right place and person to ask; it would be a starting place.
What a great poem, Kat! I love the notion of “starting places” . . . because, really, that’s what it takes. Somewhere to start! Thanks for sharing this poem today.
Oh, this is wonderful! Let’s all take a deep breath and imagine the possibilities for making this world better.
Thanks for this!
that poem sums up my thoughts and I love the hopefulness in the dialogue!!
Yes to imagining a starting place. Happy Poetry Month.